


I Promise

by Diggy



Series: Malink [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, Maybe - Freeform, bring a tissue, malink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-02-04 08:49:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18601132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diggy/pseuds/Diggy
Summary: **Sequel to "Come Visit Me Again"**





	I Promise

**Author's Note:**

> **Sequel to "Come Visit Me Again"**

 

Link came to frequent Lon Lon Ranch more often than not in the later years of his life. Part of the reason was that it was the closest thing he had to a stable residence.

It didn’t move.

Epona was welcome.

No matter how _old_ he aged, it didn’t abandon him like the Lost Woods has sometime in his early teens.

The other part, however, was a lot more personal.

_Malon._

Her fiery beauty and her warm personality and even just that voice she used when she spoke his name...it made him melt even in the dead of winter.

And so time and time again he came to visit and time and time again she asked, “Come visit me again?”

And time and time again he said,

“I promise.”

 

**\- - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  


“Will you kiss me again?” She giggled and swayed and perhaps if he hadn’t lost his sense half a bottle ago he would have noticed how precariously perched his favorite fiery-headed farm girl currently sat before him. He was much more preoccupied with the shiny pink of her lips that she kept licking just inches from his face and the way her neck was becoming flushed and rosey to match the blush in her cheeks. Malon looped a finger in his collar and Link leaned in without much resistance.

“Kiss me again, _fairy boy.”_ She hiccuped loudly and then erupted in a bubbly laugh that was only subdued when Link none-too-gently smashed a hungry and sloppy kiss against her.

Oh, but because it was _him_ and because she’d wanted this moment for so long and likely because she was probably more drunk at the moment than she imagined one person should ever be in her life...the kiss just felt exactly right.

Malon hiccuped once more into the kiss and this time it was Link’s turn to laugh against her mouth. He wrapped two strong arms against her middle and in one shallow tug pulled her flush against him until she felt as if her soul had left her body.

But Link was drunk too and the wine they shared had clouded his senses and somewhere between laughing and kissing they toppled to the floor and burst into such a fit of laughter that Malon was certain she was crying.

“Will you kiss me again fairy boy?”

Link rushed to kiss her but she paused him with one finger on his lips and a giggle that echoed in his veins. “In the morning?” She hiccuped loudly and Link just nodded.

Malon leaned in closer and his hand found her middle, still modest and chaste. “In a week?”

Link’s tongue started out between his lips and licked at her finger.

Malon spoke once more just as his lips hovered over hers. “Forever?”

Link breathed.

“I promise.”

 

**\- - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  


“Link?” The older man’s voice boomed unceremoniously across the ranch but Link’s perceptive ear’s heard him immediately. The younger Hylian looked up at the strange beckoning to find Talon making his way towards him. He had a strange look on his face. It wasn’t quite one of worry or one of regret, just…foreign.

Talon seemed to fidget and wrong out his hands harshly as he approached Link. He glanced a moment up as the younger man towered over him and then quickly glanced behind him as if trying to see if anyone was watching.

“I have a question to ask you, boy.” He didn’t use the name as a mock or even with negative connotation. It was more of a nickname of sorts. To Malon he was _fairy boy_ despite the years he’d been fairy-less. To her father he was simply ‘boy.’

Talon did another nervous once over and seeing no one was around, he finally seemed to exhale the breath he’d been holding. “You’ve been with my daughter fer a while now.”

Link didn’t move nor smile. It wasn’t really a question and he wasn’t sure what the ranch owner was trying to say. Seeing that Link was clearly not going to deny or admit anything else, Talon continued.

“What are your intentions with my Malon?” Talon begin to turn red.

Link cocked a brow. “Intentions?” He was curious with the choice of words. “She is a woman, sir, not a farm tool. I don’t have any intentions to use her for anything.”

Talon made a nervous noise and scratched the back of his neck. “No, no, no!” He made another strange almost strangled sound. “Tha’s not what I meant.”

_Bother._

“I need you to know something, sir.” Link’s voice was soft but steady and unwavering. He was speaking truth, not emotion. “I love your daughter and I love your ranch. I don’t have a home or place to go when I’m not traveling but it is around her that I feel the closest thing to home and healing that I can.”

_Talon was beaming._

“Was I supposed to ask your permission for that?”

Talon jumped “Goddess, no!” He clapped his hands excitedly. “That’s excellent boy!” He tried his best to give the younger man a hard slap on the back but despite his best attempt, Link didn’t so much as flinch. It was a little intimidating. His excitement was almost as strong itself.

“So…” Talon almost _buzzed_ with excitement. “You gonna marry her?”

Link widened his eyes but kept a blank expression.

“I mean,” Talon swallowed again. “Can’t have you two sleepin’ in the barn the rest of yer lives…” he starred at Link waiting for a response. For a minute he didn’t budge. Then without warning Link sprouted a smile and Talon jumped in excitement.

“I knew it!” He clapped his hands. “Boy, yer going to be my son!” He gave Link another hardy slap on the back and Link seemed to blush. “I guess I can give you this then…” Talon dig into his pocket with a dirty hand and a moment later pulled out something tiny and gold between his thumb and forefinger. Link starred at the golden ring and felt something shift in his balance.

“It used to be her mother’s ring. I reckon she’d be awfully happy to get it from you.”

Link wasn’t sure what words were appropriate for an occasion such as that one so he chose to say none at all. His vision kept shifting between the ring, Talon, and the barn he knew Malon was in.

An image of her fiery hair and a white dress flashed before him and Link swallowed.

“Just promise me you’ll take care of her, eh?” Link wasn’t sure if the older man meant the ring or his daughter but the answer was absolute all the same.

“I promise.”

 

**\- - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  


“How old are you?” Malon’s tender pink lips brushed a scar that slithered down the swell of finely chiseled muscle and tissue on his arm. She remembered that scar from before it had healed when Link had come to her war-worn and bleeding, asking for her help. Her own fingers had stitched it up and she regretted her inability to do a clean job because the ugly mark it left behind was an obvious reminder of it.

Link remained silent and rather than respond to her inquiry looked away to where the black night and bright stars shined through the open window. She could feel his withdrawal immediately and it saddened her to a further extent than she cared to admit.

_Was he running away or trying to forget?_

Malon kissed his arm again, this time letting her lips linger and eyes flutter closed with a long, slow inhale. “You don't have to tell me. I just want to know more about you.” Her hand slid up his arm as if she were comforting him like a child but Link again remained silent. “I just want to know _all_ of you.” She kissed his flesh just once more and embraced his arm in both of hers.

“You never asked me this when we were children.” It was rare to hear so many words in his voice at once. Malon faltered. She knew he was right. She’d had her own assumptions when they were children but those ideas has changed over the years when she went one way and he went in a distrasticly different direction.

“When I met you as a child, I assumed we were around the same age.” Malon recalled the time fondly. Who’d ever think that cute little fairy boy in odd green clothes were turn into such a lifelong and important friend...and now a lover? “But it was strange seeing you over the years. Sometimes you seemed to be wise beyond your years, and sometimes it just seemed like your years passed a lot more quickly than mine did.”

Link remained quiet, listening.

“So…” she hesitated to ask him again. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Link’s inhale was long and slow and she wondered how many times he second guessed his decision to tell her these details before he finally verbalized them. “I’ll tell you more one day.”

Malon looked up at him with a smile. “Do you promise?”

He smiled back with a new brilliance in his handsome features. “I promise.”

  


**\- - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  


“Will you come back soon?” She held a hand against her middle and gave him a desperate, almost sorrowful look.

_She begged him not to go._

“As soon as you can?” Something in her gut shifted and it made her nauseated and panicked, even more so than the thought of him leaving her again.

Link noticed her fear and knew better. The sun was rising quickly and he had a time to keep, but the way those eyes started at him and the way his fiery farm girl begged him now made him question all his loyalties. He dismounted his stead swiftly and pulled her tightly into his arms. Malon rested her head against his chest until the only thing between them was their unborn child growing steadily by the minute.

“Just promise me you’ll be here for this child.”

Link kissed her forehead and felt something dark seep into his soul.

“I promise,” he said.

  


**\- - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  


He watched from afar with a strange feeling. Perhaps _feeling_ wasn’t correct terminology for it. In fact, he wasn’t sure what to call _it_ at all.

As he watched his descendant — his blood, son of his son’s son, his own flesh — walk this earth wielding the blade that cursed him so many years ago…

It was somber to think about. He knew as well as this son of his one day would. Their blood was drawn to that blade. It was a destiny written by the Goddesses; a destiny they couldn’t escape.

_But look at what he’d accomplished._

There was a pride deep down somewhere. He was _proud_ of the strong young man with the spirit of a wolf. He’d taught him everything he knew about wielding a blade as magnificent as the cursed Master Sword.

If he could smile, he would.

After all that time, and all these ages of waiting between the two worlds he’d fallen into so long ago...he’d finally kept his promise to her.

_His Malon._

The wind seemed to warm. He couldn’t feel it really. His physical form had long weathered away centuries ago, flesh replaced by calcifies bones and a metal armor that seemed to grow into his skeleton.

But there was something different today. It was as if gravity shifted and suddenly…everything was light. He wanted to close his eye and inhale it.

_“There you are, fairy boy,”_ a musical voice floated through the air.

The air stilled. Link turned his head with joints and bones creaking under the effort except they were much quieter this time. A warm glow grew before him. Warm because of its tone and because…

He could feel it? He had no flesh to feel the sun’s warmth but he felt it this time. He closed his eyes and this time there were two and he could do just that.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come home for so long.”

And when he opened them there she was.

“Fairy boy, where have you been?” She laughed lightly and Link felt himself stare in awe.

She seemed to glow in heavenly light, her skin gold, hair ablaze, dress more white than the day he married her. And her smile — _brilliant_.

She approached him without step or sound as if she were an angel. “Are you ready to come home now?” Her hand reached out and when he felt it on his cheeky he felt the emotion all well up and swell in his eyes until the breath in his chest grew and expanded and it only dawned on his when he gave a labored and shaken inhale that he had lungs or tears or flesh at all.

Her hand was soft and warm just as he’d remembered. “I’ve been waiting so long for you to finish your promise…”

The tears fell off his chin and instead of rusted armor and wines overgrown they landed silently on canvas and cotton fresh and cleaned.

“Malon?”

She giggled and took his hand in hers.

“Come on,” she pulled his arm and this time he stood without weight or resistance. “Let’s go home, _Hero.”_

And he did.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've enjoyed this story or any of my more recent works, please let me know so I can be inspired to write you more sweet, romantic, or even bittersweet ficlets.


End file.
